Welcome to my blog and thank you for visiting! I'm a medical assistant who loves running, hiking, cycling, coffee (sometimes too much coffee), and creating fun things in my spare time. I'm a single mom to two wonderful grown children and Grandma to two beautiful granddaughters! I love sharing my card creations with my friends and the crafting world. To subscribe to my blog please enter your email address in the "follow by email" box to the right. Have a wonderful day!

Friday, November 27, 2015

My second card today was created for The Challenge. The challenge was to make a Christmas card using the inspiration photo. I loved the the Ho Ho Ho sentiment and wanted that to be the focus of my card. I found a wonderful card sometime back on Pinterest and saved it to my board but had forgotten about it until today. I wanted to replicate it but with my own twist. I started by embossing the sentiment from the My Favorite Things Grand Holiday Greetings using Versamark ink and heat embossed it onto some black cardstock using Recollections snow white detail embossing powder. I love the contrast of the crisp white against the black. I adhered that to my red cardstock and layered that onto my white card base. I punched a white border using the Stampin' UP dotted scallop ribbon border punch and punched the buttons for Santa's jacket using black cardstock and an EK Success 1/4" circle punch. Using my Nestibilities large scalloped circled dies I die cut the collar and adhered that onto the card and called this card done! Pretty simple and easy to replicate. I have to make several of these this year!

Today's card was created for the Jingle Belles Holiday Leftover challenge. The challenge is to use leftover scraps of paper, an image or stamp you've never used, or little bits of embellishment you have lying around. One of my favorite leftover techniques is to use a punch to use up those little bits of paper from my 6x6 paper pads that you can really use to create anything else. For my card today I used a Fiskars hexagon paper punch and took all the leftover scraps from an old K&Company Susan Winget Christmas paper pack. It's a beautiful paper pack filled with gorgeous images in traditional Christmas colors but those little snippets leftover are really tough to use for things like paper piecing since they have larger images on them. The hex punch really gives me a nice way to use those hard to use scraps up and to create something pretty out something that might have been thrown away! Creating this card was easy. I simply started with a white card base and layered on some inexpensive evergreen cardstock from Hobby Lobby as a focal layer. I punched my hex shapes out of my scraps of paper and layered them onto a piece of tying paper that I created a grid on to keep my pieces straight. Once done I added a strip of the patterned paper with some more of the green cardstock followed by some more white for my sentiment. I stamped my holiday greeting in Versafine onyx black ink and added a few matte red sequins I picked up at the Dollar Store and called this card done. Easy peasy and so pretty!

Sunday, November 22, 2015

My card today was created for the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown Theme Challengefamily and friends. I started with a plain white card base and layered on a few pieces of patterned paper from the American Crafts Hot Cocoa 6x6 paper pad. I just love these yummy papers and they just scream winter and holidays to me. I stamped the gingerbread couple from the Avocado Arts Gingerbread Goodness stamp set onto some plain kraft cardstock from The Paper Studio and fussy cut them out. I stamped the house from the same stamp set onto the patterned papers and fussy cut them out as well. I popped the roof and the gingerbread couple up off of the card using some Stampin' UP foam dimensionals. I stamped the sentiment from the stamp set and added some black dashed lines around the outer edges of the focal panel to give it some added detail. I added some candy red and frosted lace Stickles to the snow bank, the roof and chimney lines, to the gingerbread couple, and on either side of the sentiment for some sparkle and shine. I mean, what's a Christmas card without some sparkle and shine, right? I hope you like it!

Saturday, November 21, 2015

My second card today was created for the Merry Monday and Inkspirational Christmas card challenges. I have several deer stamps and dies and had a tough time deciding which ones to use. I decided I wanted to create a quiet, serene scene where deer would be found. I cracked out a stamp that I've owned for well over a year but I'm embarrassed to say I've never used. I wiped the dust off of my Hero Arts Winter Trees stamp and stamped it using some clear Versamark ink. I then did some masking and stamped only the deer on the Memory Box Deer In The Field stamp. I used the sentiment from the WPlus9 Pretty Patches stamp set. I heat embossed it all using Ranger liquid platinum embossing powder and seriously love the way it turned out! I popped the whole panel up onto a plain white card base using some foam tape and added a bit of DMC gold cross stitching floss. My only regret was that the floss started unraveling as I was tying the bow. I tried several pieces and all of them did the same thing. I finally gave up and adhered it down with a glue dot but am still not happy with that bow. I guess I'd better find some different twine or floss. But I am happy with the card overall and am sorry it took me so long to break out this beautiful stamp!

Today's card was created for the Card Concept challenge. While I simply love everything about this photo I was most drawn to the red and white and the gingham. I didn't have any gingham paper but I had some pretty plaid that I wanted to use for this. I wanted to keep the design simple so I chose to basically keep the colors to red, black, and white while adding a bit of shimmer with gold touches. I started with a white card base and then layered on some black cardstock from Stampin' UP. I then added a layer of the plaid paper from Crafty Secrets. I die cut a small white panel using Gina Marie Designs dies and then stamped the tree sentiment from the Kaisercraft Basecoat Christmas stamp set using Versafine onyx black ink for a nice crisp impression. I popped the focal panel up using some foam tape, added a few onyx black sequins from Pretty Pink Posh and a few dots of gold metallic detailing using an American Crafts gold metallic pen. So simple and so pretty! I hope you enjoy!

Friday, November 20, 2015

Today's card was created for the CASology Cue Card and the CAS(e) This Sketchchallenges. Now, I have to admit that I struggle with clean and simple. It's just not in my nature so I really have to constrain myself to not go overboard with embellishments or too much layering but I like the way this turned out. I started with some textured aqua cardstock and layered on some kraft and added some dashed lines using my Signo uni-ball white gel pen. I stamped one of the flowers from the Stampin' UP Flower Shop stamp set using Memento tuxedo black ink and punched it out using the coordinating punch. I colored the flowers using Copic markers in the blue and blue violet family to create a nice variegated look. I added a few white dots using my gel pen and then added some small white pearls from The Paper Studio. I heat embossed the Wishing You sentiment from the Verve Stamps Wishing You stamp set using clear Versamark ink and snow white detail embossing powder from Recollections. I added a pearl to the I in the sentiment to tie it in with the flowers. I popped the flowers up using some Stampin' UP foam dimensionals for a bit of dimension and called it done. I hope you like it!

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Today's card was created for the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge. I was so excited when I saw this challenge because I had just ordered the Stampin' UP Thankful Forest Friends and knew it would be in just in time for the challenge. As soon as it arrived I inked it up and created this sweet little card. I started with a plain white card base and layered on a piece of kraft cardstock. I inked up the sentiment and the coordinating foliage using Gina K. charcoal brown ink. I stamped the adorable little fox using Memento ink in peanut brittle, fussy cut it out, and popped it up off of the card using Stampin' UP foam dimensionals. Using my Signo Uni-ball white gel pen I added some white dotted detail to the foliage and some dashed lines around the border of the card for added interest. Love how sweet and simple this card is and I plan on inking up several more to mail out this Thanksgiving season. Thank you for looking!

Saturday, November 7, 2015

I adore Autumn! I love the cool, crisp air and the beautiful foliage! I love Thanksgiving and all of the warm comfort foods that come with it! I love warm fires in the evening and I especially love fall colors! I had happened upon a coffee digital set that Julee from Verve Stamps had made available during the Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop but I wasn't able to use it at the time because I had a faulty wire on my printer. I downloaded the free digis for later because 1. it was free and 2. it's coffee related and I love all things coffee and 3. it has a beautiful Autumn theme! Anyway, I am finally getting around to using them now that my printer has been repaired! I kept it simple by using some mustard and leaf green cardstocks from Hobby Lobby and some pretty leaf paper from The Paper Studio, also from Hobby Lobby. I die cut a large circle using MFT's pierced circle dies and then added some faux black stitches around the outside of the sentiment. I colored the mugs using Copic markers in shades to match the patterned paper and then fussy cut them out and mounted them up using some foam dimensionals from Stampin' UP. A few candy dots in yellow and orange from the Paper Studios and I called this card done!

My third card today was created for the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge. I found a fabulous plaid while reading through the Crafty Secret blog and knew I had to use it for this challenge. I printed the plaid print out onto some heavy weight ivory cardstock using my HP printer and then cut it down to fit my card base. I layered some white card stock onto the back of some black cardstock and centered the panel onto the plaid paper. I die cut the Merry Christmas sentiment using a Simon Says Stamp die and the snowflakes from a Paper Smooches Die set. I adhered them down to the card and added a few black buttons from my stash using glue dots from Stampin' UP. This was a pretty and easy card to make but love how it turned out.

My second card today was created for both the Merry Monday Christmas Card and the Curtain Call Inspiration challenges. The inspiration for this card was a free digital plaid download from the Crafty Secrets blog. I printed it out using a 5x7 format to make the plaid a bit smaller and cut it down to smaller strip for this card, which left me a larger piece to use on another card. I added some gold stripes to the paper using an American Crafts metallic marker and then bordered the paper with some black Stampin' UP cardstock. I stamped two ornaments using the Hero Arts Ornaments #3 stamp set in Versamark ink and then heat embossed them using Ranger's Antiquities claret and liquid platinum and then die cut them using the coordinating dies. I backed them with the snowy background stamp from Papertrey Ink Winter Snow Globe stamp set and heat embossed that using Ranger's enchanted gold. I then stamped and die cut the tree and santa from the same stamp set and colored them using Copic markers. I added some yellow, red, and ice crystal Stickles to them for added sparkle and then mounted them to the ornaments. I punched a hole in the ornament tops using a regular hole punch and then threaded some black DMC embroidery floss through them to act as the strings and fastened them to the back of my panel using some tape. I added a little bow to each ornament using some Ranger Multi Matte Medium. I stamped the Noel sentiment using Versafine onyx black ink from the Gnome For The Holidays stamp set and then added a few sequins from Pretty Pink Posh and Simon Says Stamp. I hope you like it!

It's been almost a week since I posted a card. I think the holidays and winter are going to get the better of me until I get my vacation. But I did manage to create a few cards today and my first card is for both theFreshly Made Sketches #211 and the Colour Me Monochromatic color challenges. I kept this card in the neutral family of browns for the color challenge and tried to play off of the sketch. I started with some plain white cardstock and inked the edges going straight to paper with my Gina K charcoal brown ink. I mounted that to my card using some double sided tape since I had to dry it with my heat tool and it warped a bit. I then cut down a smaller panel and stamped the elements from the Stampin' UP Kinda Eclectic stamp set using warm cocoa ink and charcoal brown inks, both my Gina K. I then cut a small circle using MFT's pierced circles dies and inked the edges using the same charcoal brown ink. I cut an even smaller circle using a Spellbinders die and stamped one of the elements from the stamp set using the warm cocoa ink. I stamped the butterflies from the same stamp set using both inks and then fussy cut them out. I layered them up using foam dimensionals and glue dots from Stampin' UP. A few sequins from Pretty Pink Posh finished up this card!

Monday, November 2, 2015

It's been a while since I've had a chance to post a card. Life has gotten in the way...work, visiting relatives, and making time for friends I've not seen in a while. But when I saw this week's Time Out Challenge I knew I had to make time to participate in this one simply because I knew it would force me outside of my typical comfort zone for holiday card making. The challenge is to create a Christmas card with the optional twist to include pink and/or purple. I stopped and thought about it and I have to say that I don't think I've ever made a holiday card with either pink or purple on it so I thought it might be fun to try. I started with some patterned paper from My Mind's Eye. I apologize that I cannot recall the name of the paper but I only bought a single sheet of it years ago and had thrown the strip with the name of it away right after I bought it. But that pretty paper had all of the right colors in it to launch my focal panel. I decided to try my hand at watercoloring. That's something else that's very much outside of my comfort zone. I'm not very good at it and most of my efforts in the past have failed but I was determined to make this work. I started with a piece of Strathmore cold press watercolor paper and I cut it out using a Gina Marie Design stitched line die. I prepped the paper with a powder tool and stamped the adorable stocking image by Hero Arts using some Versafine onyx black ink and then heat embossed it using some American Crafts clear embossing powder. Using some Tim Holtz distress ink in Spun Sugar and did a nice wash of light pink over the entire background and then added some darker pink splatters using my Simply Art watercolor palette. I stamped the stockings again, embossed them, and then watercolored them using my Simply Art watercolors in pink, purple, and green. I fussy cut them out and popped them up off of the focal panel using some Stampin' UP foam dimensionals. I added some frosted lace Stickles over the stockings for some added sparkle and dimension and then added a few sequins from Pretty Pink Posh in the corners. I stamped the greeting from the Simon Says Stamp Be Joyful stamp set and heat embossed it. I cut the paper out and created a banner by creating fish tails on either end. I love how adorably this turned out and I hope you do too!

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About Me

I'm a single mom and grandma who loves cardmaking and crafting. I love to spend my spare time exercising, crafting, hanging out with family and friends, and reading a good book while sipping on some wine or coffee!